Windsor Hill Wood

With our usual transport of a breakdown truck out of action having broken down and its mechanic off sick, we had to resort to towing a trailer. We remembered while doing so why we had started to use the breakdown truck in the first place. 

It's all fun and games when trying to navigate your way through the pot holed streets of Bristol at the best of times. Add to the mix a trailer with a hut on its back and your nerves will be shot for sure. 

Then there was the small issue of a car abandoned across one half of a tight turning but with a quick phone call to Toby we headed for a roundabout and came at said turn from the easier way.

With all that aside, it was a pretty easy drop once we were at location. Once on site we weren't convinced that the breakdown truck would have coped with the ground. As it was, the land rover pulled the trailer up the muddy track and over grass with relative ease once we had remembered to put the diff lock on. 

So with a large team effort provided by Toby the hut was then manoeuvred into the desired location ready for them to add the finishing touches. 

A delivered 'unpainted' hut.

The hut itself, pictured above, was delivered unpainted. The five windows, two on each side and one in the end, were all opening and double glazed. 

A note from Toby of Windsor Hill Wood:

Just wanted to say thanks for doing everything you said you would. The hut looks magnificent and feels just right for this place. It'll keep someone very warm and cosy through the winter. We're all very grateful. All the best, Toby

Windsor Hill Wood is a woodland shelter set up by Tobias Jones and Francesca Lenzi. Inspired by the Pilsdon Community in Dorset, it aims to create a peaceful environment where people going through tough or uncertain times can come and reflect on life.

The painted hut.

How to build a bird hide half way up a mountain (in the shadow of scafell pike)

This is the story of an unusual project we were asked to do in May this year. It was the first of two bird hides in the style of a shepherds hut.
Access to the site was limited so the whole thing had to be built in situ. It was a bit of a challenge but we managed to complete it, despite the weather, in a day and a half.

5:20am; 21.05.11.

All the stuff for the building loaded the night before.

Only 199 miles away from the site...

We arrived at the place between 9:30 and 10. It was then several trips later using the guy's quad and trailer to cart all the material and tools up the side of a hill. I was running behind the trailer making sure things stayed on, it felt like miles. After the first load got stuck, we halved the load and it went swimmingly, then once everything was up, we attempted to level up the base the guy had put down. This was four bits of wood kind of dug into the ground a little. We then put down the actual base of the birdhide on top. By this point it was 12:44.

(Regret not taking a pic of the trailer and quad, but camera was somewhere safe at that point.)

By 1:49pm we had the frame up.

 General bits and pieces

Mostly this was the view, either the rain was a bit away or it was on us, and then there was the wind as well.

It was wet and windy, not really the best build conditions...

When we got to the site we could see the top of that mountain; at this point it was 7:20pm, but it was mostly like that through out the day.

 By 7:25pm the roof was on and the shutters were in. The roof was difficult on the side of a hill with the wind blowing a hooley. curved corrugated sheets trying to lift every now and then while trying to fasten them down a fun time does not make.

We left the site at 8.30pm, the door was on and we were mostly finished but a few little twiddly bits left to do.

The Next Day

The next day, the weather was windy and wet, but less wet and more windy. We got up to the site at about 8am. Then it was putting the shelves up, the chains for the shutters and kick boards and the like.

By 10:20 the hide was ready for painting

 The sun came out at this point, still a bit windy but that wasn't a problem. We could even see the tops of the mountains.

And  by 12.30pm the whole build was done.
 .

  This was the view from one side of the bird hide

And this was the view from the other side,

Proper sunshine... Why wasn't it like this the day before?

All we had to take back. After everything was taken down the hill by the guy in the quad trailer thing.
We left the place at about 3pm.

199 miles to go to get home.

4:20pm, at side of the road cooking lunch.
We had about 150 miles to go with the worst twirly and awful road bit of the trip done.